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NASA's Curiosity rover has drilled into a Martian rock and
collected samples, marking the first time any robot has ever
performed this complicated maneuver on the surface of another
planet.

The 1-ton Curiosity
rover used its arm-mounted drill to bore a hole 0.63 inches
(1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) deep in a section
of sedimentary bedrock on Friday (Feb. 8). The activity paves the
way for the first-ever analysis of fresh Martian subsurface
material and provides the last major checkout of the robot's gear
and instruments, researchers said.

"The most advanced planetary robot ever designed now is a fully
operating analytical laboratory on Mars," John Grunsfeld,
associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
said in a statement. "This is the biggest milestone
accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the
sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for
America."

Curiosity will process the sample over the next few days,
researchers said. The rover will use some of the material to
scour its sample-handling hardware clean of any residues that may
remain from Earth before transferring any powder to the
analytical instruments on the rover's body. [ Curiosity
Rover's Amazing Mars Photos ]

"We'll take the powder we acquired and swish it around to scrub
the internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly," said Curiosity
drill systems engineer Scott McCloskey, of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "Then we'll use the arm to
transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will
be our first chance to see the acquired sample."

Drilling so deep into a Red Planet rock is a complex and
unprecedented maneuver, so the mission team worked its way up to
the first effort in a steady, stepwise fashion.

About two weeks ago, Curiosity began assessing the target rock,
which is part of an outcrop called "John Klein" that was exposed
to liquid water long ago. The rover first pressed down on the
rock with its arm-mounted drill in a series of "pre-load" tests.
It then used the drill's percussive action to hammer the outcrop
without spinning the drill bit, which cleared the way for a
recent "mini-drill" that bored into rock but didn't collect
samples.

Getting Curiosity ready for all these steps — and for yesterday's
successful full-up drilling run — also took a lot of prep work
here on Earth, researchers said.

"Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks
on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program,"
said JPL's Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample
system. "To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on
Mars, we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20
types of rock on Earth."

Curiosity landed inside Mars' huge Gale Crater on the night of
Aug. 5 to determine if the area has ever been capable of
supporting microbial life. Along with its 10 science instruments
and 17 cameras, the
rover's drill is considered key to this quest, for it allows
scientists to peer deep into Martian rocks for evidence of past
habitability.